Author's note–A bit nervous to do this, probably messed this whole thing up from start to finish but here I go, amateur attempt one. I'm a bit anxious at putting this out for people to read but it can only help me improve so all criticisms welcome. Er...next on the list...ah yes. Kinda feel like I have to do this to cover the bases.

Disclaimer: This is a work of pure fiction (obviously). Any characters or the world from the Sword Art Online series of light novels (manga, anime, video games) by Kawahara Reki (etc. for these other media) are created and owned by their respective owners and I claim no ownership over them or the Sword Art Online universe. This is a story meant for entertainment purposes not to be believed as part of the official story line. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. (I feel a bit dumb doing this.)

That asides I'd like to welcome you to Dæmonica.

Phase 00 Login

Cold, that's what the intermediary state feels like. Its nothingness with an absence of heat. But soon your rushed to the first screen, INITIAL LOGIN. USER-name, Password, address for further verification (optional after initial login.) I went through the process patiently. Then I was in the tutorial, getting use to an avatar body and the basic actions of the game. I was using a neural interface to directly access the game. Dæmonica. Fight in a realm devised by the Demon god. Free yourself from his evil clutches, with divine protection and your own skill. The first sight of Purgatory, the new dimension, was a sky shot. It was huge, easily several tens of miles. That was just the base, it shrunk to a reasonable size as you looked above the stars to the next tier. At the top, the 100th tier world, was the demon king's palace. And beyond that was the Aster, paradise. The ultimate objective. Then after you did some sight seeing you were rocketed downward. Vertigo and the sensation of the wind against your skin met your perception. The real body in the real world would be asleep. The mind would dream, and the neural interface would be translating the bodies neural signals and digital data back and forth over a wireless connection. Then you landed, kneeling at first. I felt real gravity, real air, real everything. I stood. This world was reality now. Its all a game right? Exactly thirteen minutes later, all the players gathered in the center of the town, twenty thousand strong. We waited for the official start of Dæmonica. The creator of the interface, the game, the world, Gene Lockeless would appear and, metaphorically, do the ribbon cutting. When he did appear it surprised us all, at first it was just a red cloud. It condensed and became a reaper, a grim reaper.

"Welcome." We cheered.

But that ended quickly. "I apologize for tricking you all like this." He started.

Then several windows appeared. Each appropriate to our area.

"But as you can see you all fell into a horrible trap. This might be a game, but you are to live it, not to play it."

Then our entire world fell apart. NEURAL INTERFACE HIJACKING. Was the best title to describe what happened. Each and everyone of us was a hostage, the interface completely blocked the commands from our brains, except those necessary for life functions. We were in comas, across three continents and a handful more nations.

"Do not worry. All of you will be transported to one of five specially made facility for just this purpose. To keep you safe. All of you will be taken care of, the transferring will end in five more hours. Until then you'll remain here. As a warning, though." The black shape started to disperse.

"The interface can do so much more than interrupt and redirect bioelectric messages, it can send them back to the source or redouble the message, causing something similar to an overload." It was just his black hood now.

"The point being, you'll die. If the interface is removed, the power-source dies, loses connection to Dæmonica for more than seven hours, or is ordered to destroy you, it will destroy your mind. It will stop your heart and lungs, it will kill you, if you die in this world." Then the figure was gone, only a whisper of his voice remained.

"Though I fear four-hundred of you already had loved ones who killed you."

The sound of crashing and guttural screams reached my ears. Several people were dying, disappearing before my very eyes. Dying in front of me. After the first people died in this game, the screams continued, they stopped when those people collapsed or calmed about three hours later. As the fifth hour of waiting ended the specter was back.

"Congratulations, the last of you are touching down at your institutes in the US. The rest of you should have reconnected already or are experiencing lag. I'll release you to your adventure momentarily." Then I realized that he had us frozen.

We would have complained and attacked him, but he even had our lips shut. This was a scary power. "I wish this to be your adventure, not a generic avatar's." He swiped his hand and our data recompiled.

I winced and watched. Everyone changed. We looked like regular people, people you'd see as lawyers and other adults were a large part of the crowd. The ratio of men to women changed too. From equally half to maybe two in five. I looked down at myself.

IMPOSSIBLE!

I was like my real self. Lean, a bit on the tall side, my serious expression that seemed to always be plastered to me felt real.

"NO!" Several people yelled. "Welcome to Dæmonica. To my world of Purgatory. I will await you all at the Obsidian Blight Palace. May you fight bravely and your wills never dull."

Then the reaper, the new God, Damn Lockeless, rocketed upwards through the starry barriers in the sky to the top tier. Then we were able to move. Immediately the disbelief spread like a plague. People broke down and curled into the fetal position. Others sobbed to themselves, some had stoic expressions. They trembled and kept mumbling to themselves, "Not real."

I was terrified. My heart felt a deep pang of pain and guilt. I couldn't stand to watch them. I turned and ran, "NOO!" A woman screamed as I ran past.

I saw others follow my example, or rather I followed their example. Close to a thousand players, of the total twenty thousand, rushed through the gates to the fields of war. I saw skeletons ringing the city. Their name, Wretched. I drew the starting sword, my hand felt cumbersome with it now that it had changed from that of an adult to the fourteen year-old me. A Wretched raised its fist as the tip of the short-sword glowed.

"AHH!"

I drove the point home, at the exposed skeletal neck of it. Destroying it. I rushed past the line, as fighting broke out. This was the first of many battles. I looked back, I saw a man get knocked to the floor. I raised my sword, and I shouted, for my family. For my sister. For my life and all those that were trapped. I charged and slapped it with the flat of the blade, a stun motion for low level enemies. The skeleton tottered. The man's axe smashed its legs and the skeleton shattered on the ground, dead. I helped him up.

"Come on, we'll get slaughtered." We dashed past as the sheer number of skeletons increased. A wall of three stood in our way. I dashed forward. "AHH!" One edge of the sword glowed sea green, a complete semicircle slash destroyed the skeletons.

I was frozen for a moment, action pause. The guy I saved slung me over his shoulder and barreled through the five new monsters. His axe was highly effective against them. We made it to the forest a mile away, more players were around us, we had made it. We cleared the first challenge.

We sprawled out on the grass. "C-check!" Someone said.

I counted the heads around, I stopped short of three hundred after an immeasurable amount of time. I looked back at the starting city, a vast majority of players were still stuck back on the battlefield. Then we had a brief debate. Go back or Continue. Less than half of the people were for going back, I'll give you three guesses as to two of them. Me and the other guy I saved. We were outvoted and continued on. I looked over my shoulder once and saw a person get killed. I shuttered and turned away. The forest had several things in it. Several dangerous things with gnashing teeth set in demonic mouths.